Terre Johnson

Conductor TERRE JOHNSON holds degrees in choral music education from Troy University, Auburn University, and Florida State University, and serves as Minister of Music at the Vestavia Hills Baptist Church. In addition to his many conducting engagements, he has notable experience in public school teaching, college teaching, and church music. He is also Associate Conductor for Midamerica Productions in New York, for whom he regularly conducts concerts in Carnegie Hall, as well as conducting rehearsals across the country preparing choruses for performances conducted by British composer and conductor John Rutter in Carnegie Hall. Prior to coming to Vestavia Hills he was Conductor-in-Residence for Midamerica Productions in New York, and Music Director of the New Jersey Choral Society. He is also the founder and music director of the Southeastern Chamber Orchestra, and is at home with both the choral and orchestral repertoires. A popular guest conductor, he has conducted concerts, rehearsals and workshops in twenty-three states and several countries. His Carnegie Hall debut in 1996 met with critical success, the music having been "splendidly presented," according to Bill Zakariasen in The Westsider. In 2004 the New York Times lauded the “robust choral sound” his chorus produced in a concert production of Taneyev’s Agamemnon, which featured soprano Angela Brown, and was narrated by Olympia Dukakis. Recent performances have included regular invitations to conduct the New England Symphonic Ensemble in New York's Carnegie Hall, and the Roma Symphonia in Rome, Italy. In the summer of 2006 he conducted in the Sydney Opera House and Sydney’s Town Hall, as part of the Voices in the House Festival. His choirs have performed in international festivals in Warsaw, Krakow and Coventry, and performed as part of the 1999 Rome Easter Festival. Choirs under his direction have toured in Switzerland, Italy, England, Poland, and throughout the United States. In 2009 he will serve as guest conductor and Assistant Artistic Director for the International Haydn Festival 2009 in Vienna. In 2010 he will hold a similar post in the World Expo Festival of the Arts in Beijing. An accomplished accompanist, Dr. Johnson has served as rehearsal assistant and accompanist to many of the best-known choral conductors, including Colleen Kirk, Harold Decker, Larry Wyatt, Maurice Casey, Morris Hayes, Hugh Thomas, Clayton Krehbiel, and Robert Shaw.